Export PDFs from Windows 10

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With the release of Windows 10, Microsoft finally included the ability to create PDFs without the need for third party apps or plugins. This video walks you through the process of how to create a PDF from any Windows application that can print.

- [Garrett] Hi, I'm Garrett Chowand welcome to Monday Productivity Pointers.Before the release of Windows 10,there was no native wayto save documents as PDFs in Windows.If you wanted to share a file as a PDF,you had to rely on Adobe Acrobator some other third-party applicationto generate it for you.Thankfully, Windows 10 has native PDF creationbut it still seems like some people are not aware of it.So this week I thought I'd quickly walk through the processof how to save documents as PDFs in Windows.Start in any application that has a print option built in.I'm using Word Pad herebut this will work in any program that can print.

When you're ready to save whatever file you are working onas a PDF,you can choose file, printor find the print command in the application you're using.Depending on the app,it may be located in the file menuor as a button in the toolbar or elsewhere.In this case, I'll go to file, and choose print.And here under the select printer area,I'm going to choose Microsoft print to PDF.Now you may see other PDF options heredepending on what you have installed on your own computer.But if you're running Windows 10,you'll definitely see the Microsoft print to PDF option.With that selected, I'm going to choose print.

I'll give this file a name.And I'll just save this to my desktop.And that's it.The PDF is now sitting on my desktop, as you can see here.This is similar to the same functionalitythat Mac users have had for years in macOS.But unlike on the Mac side of things,you cannot include any additional datalike metadata about the document's author, title, and so on,and you cannot password protect PDFs in this wayin Windows either.If you want that kind of functionality,you'll still have to use Adobe Acrobat.

However, it's nice to be able to quickly generatea basic PDF of a documentwhen you want to share a fileand maintain it's look and feelwithout having to worry about alsosharing the documents fonts and images as well.And because PDFs can be opened natively on Macs and Windows,you don't have to worry about your recipientnot having the right software to view your file.Okay, and that does it for this week.I'm Garrett Chow and we'll see you next timefor more Monday Productivity Pointers.

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Author

Updated

2/12/2018

Released

3/26/2013

In this weekly series on being productive with technology, authors Jess Stratton, Garrick Chow, and Nick Brazzi introduce tools and tips to help make today's software and devices work more efficiently and powerfully for you. With everything from pointers on using Microsoft Office and Google platforms to learning social networking skills and discovering the most useful apps for your iPhone or Android device, there's something for everyone.

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